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Sunday, June 04, 2017

Activist Joanna Columbie Deported to Camaguey

Activist Joanna Columbie Deported to Camaguey

14ymedio, Havana, 2 June 2017 – The principal of Academy 1010 and Somos+
(We Are More) Movement activist, Joanna Columbie, was deported Friday
from the Vivac detention center in Havana to Camaguey province, as
reported to 14ymedio by the leader of the Somos+ organization, Eliecer
Avila.

"Joanna called from Vivac to say that she was going to be taken to
Camaguey on a bus along with other detainees," the dissident added. "The
police have mounted an operation around the bus that looks like they are
transporting dangerous criminals," he said sarcastically.

"They have given her a warning about subversive activity and enemy
propaganda," he added.

The crime of enemy propaganda can carry "a sanction of incarceration
from one to eight years" according to the Penal Code. It applies to
those who prepare, distribute or possess "oral or written propaganda"
that "incites against the social order, international solidarity or the
socialist State."

At the time of her arrest the opposition leader was carrying with her
several compact discs "with material about Academy 1010," says Avila.

Columbie was arrested a week ago in the Arroyo Naranjo township by State
Security just two days after her temporary permit for residence in the
capital had expired.

The activist's permanent residence is in Cespedes, Camaguey where she
was a victim of a robbery at the beginning of the year, but the police
so far have arrested no perpetrators.

Joanna Columbie's arrest and deportation add to a series of repressive
actions against Somos+ in recent months. The expulsion of journalism
student Karla Perez (member of the independent group) from the
University of Las Villas and the raid on the home of Eliecer Avila are
some of the most recent actions by State Security against this
opposition group.